Harrington School gets the go ahead

Plans for a new free school in Rutland for post 16 education get the go ahead by the Department of Education. The bid to create Harington School was put together by Catmose College, Uppingham Community College and Oakham School. It is hoped that the school will be opening for it first intake in September 2015.

Over the years many of the top achieving students have decided to leave education in Rutland and seek courses in other counties because of the poor resources for 16 plus education around Oakham and Uppingham. Currently there is just one college based on the outskirts of the former hamlet of Barleythorpe which is now a district of of Oakham, Rutland County College. This college isn't conveniently placed for public transport, since it move from central Oakham, and it has a bad reputation among the students it sets out to attract for social problems, despite it being academically excellent according to OFSTED. Clearly these social problems that are going around could just be rumour rather based in hard facts, but they have damaged the colleges reputation with many. 

The organisations behind Harington School believe that there is a need in Rutland for a new post-16 provision with a clear academic focus. The goal is to create a school provides an academic curriculum that meets that which the leading universities require for entry, together with  enrichment activities that are particularly attractive to universities and employers. There aim being  to get students throughout their A Levels to provide them with the best chance of being accepted by the most prestigious universities in the country, including Oxford, Cambridge, and those within the Russell Group.

Personally I know that until recently students at Catmose College are looking outside Rutland at post 16 education options. These include scholarships to Oakham School, King Edward VII School in Melton Mowbray, Stamford College and even as far afield such as Kings School Grantham and the Kesteven and Grantham Girls' School. Hopefully with the opening of  Harington School these students now have an alternative which won't require them to be travelling hours and hours to get to a place of education each day.

The granting of the go ahead will be a real kick in the teeth to Rutland County Council who recently took over the running of Rutland College. Both Catmose College and Uppingham Community College were once local authority controlled and became academies as soon as they possibly could as have a number of other schools in the county. The current list  to July 2013 includes:

• Uppingham Community College
• Catmose College
• Casterton Business & Enterprise College
• Brooke Hill Academy
• Catmose Primary School
• Leighfield Primary School
• English Martyrs RC Primary School
• Langham  Primary School

Privately having talked to one of the Governor of  at the time of the Catmose College move to becoing an Academy the main reasoning was to do with funding and feeling they didn't get a fair deal by the Rutland County Council who were creaming off money from the education budget for administration and not passing enough money back to the schools.

Where this leaves Rutland County College is going to be an interesting question as Harington School will cream off the best students and many more besides from the two schools involved in the project. This will impact on there A-level programmes which until now according to their website have been excellent in terms of pass rate at least. It could force the existing college to introduce more vocational qualifications which might also be a good thing county that lacks this sort of provision. 

GCSE Day

Today millions of GCSE results will be given out to thousands of students across the county. Students will wake up with butterflies in their tummies wondering what the news will be. Some will do better than expected and some of them will do worse. However, what ever the results it not the end of the educational road and even with poor results it is no barrier to getting a qualification at level 3 or above you want. All it takes is hard work. 

There is a lot of talk about the results this year with the changes in the GCSE system coming through that have been cause by the right wing shift to the approach to the education system taken by Michael Gove's Victorian educational thinking. I think the old system had it about right in terms accessing the real students worth and except for those students with special learning needs that doesn't reflect their true intellect in memory tests we will see little change for most in the new system. Those that will be affected we be those with conditions that might affect their short term memory in some way that stops them cramming like in days of old of the old style O levels. Those poor souls could be in for a bad day through little fault of their own, just thoughts of one crazy man who lives in the past.

Anyway, I getting off the point, I wish all of those that get their results today every success in getting the results you want and need to do what they want to do. And finally remember if you don't get what you want, don't give up, you can still do what you want to do, just look around at the colleges as they will have a course for you to get you were you want to be.

A-Level Day

In a few hours from posting this post young adults and teachers from all over the country will be turning up at schools and colleges and be nervously awaiting the results of this years A-levels. 

It is a big moment for anyone and will often if they get that University place they have dreamed of since filling their UCAS form or have to go through clearing. For others getting AS grades it might determine if they carry on studying at A-level or change direction and take a level 3 vocational course. Either way if you getting your results today I wish you every success in the future.

University Fees

As first year University students face tuition fees of up to £9,000 per year University applications from UK students for courses starting in the autumn are down 10% in England on last year, according to the figures reported in the press from the admissions service.

Clearly the decision of the Conservative led government to treble tuition fees to £9,000 is hitting young peoples plans to go to University. All this from a government that being propped up by the Liberal Democrats who for years believed and campaigned that University education should be free.

I use to be a  Liberal Democrat and I believe in free University education, but I understand that is not possible given what the Government have done to higher education. We have increased the numbers of people going to University to the point that many popular degrees are worthless. They aren't worth the paper they are written on yet alone up to £27,000 in tuition fees plus interest. The government policy has created this situation.

The higher education needs looking at and what we want of it as does the whole system. Over the years because of the repeated governments push of the value of University education qualifications less than a degree have become perceived as valueless. The result is we have university graduates working on the checkouts in the CoOp in Oakham.

I feel for them they were expecting a good job because that is what the government told them to expect. The fact is the UK only needs so many University graduates and if you produce more than you need some of them will never achieve what they have been promised in terms of jobs and pay. We are at the point now the job market is flooded with graduates. The system has failed them.

There is something fundamentally wrong with the education system in this country and I can't put my finger on what. I know it is not he teachers and lectures that are at fault they just do what they have to do and that is teach and they do it well. It's not the qualifications the students sit for, they might have changed but if so from outside pressure. The system is heavily interference by government that is where I fear the problem lies.

Backwards Thinking

Seems that the Conservative Party want a return to the old days and the return of the O Level. As always they are living in the past. And haven't noticed the world has moved on.

The old O Levels weren't much better than memory tests and disadvantaged a many bright people with conditions like dyslexia who have naturally poor short term memories required to under take the revision required for this type of exam. As such they have got it wrong yet again.

What is needed is reform of the current system allowing for more banding at the top to allow the gifted students the chance to shine. Proving someone has a good memory with an O Level type qualification proves just that not an understanding of subject or the skills to apply the knowledge.

If anything is wrong with the current system it is that students are being taught how to pass the assessments rather than the basic knowledge. This has been caused by the league table system by which schools are judged by the Government. It the system of how performance is measured that has caused the problem. Hearing people say that standards are lower is rubbish they are more heavily checked than ever before.

As for comments I have read from the University's that students have poorer skills all I have to say if you will let in almost anyone then what do you expect when back in the times of the old O Level system you only took the top ten percent if that.

What the Conservative government have done today devalues all the work of the students working towards GCSE today. It has effectively said your qualifications are worth less because we don't rate them so we are going to get rid of them. Wouldn't it be better to reform the system and modernize it rather than going back to the past.

This change will have an effect on every secondary school student in the UK. Even in year 7 students start working for their GCSE's to maximize they grades they will get 5 years down the line. This will be a massive change to those students and cause major disruption to the teaching in schools.

It is a ill thought out idea driven by the memory of the past by people with no new idea's of their own. It is a return to the dark ages of education where some of the brightest students were disadvantage by memory tests.